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Crazy ticket idea or just too expensive?


CruisingSince2012
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I know this can't be a money saver and will not try it on my next cruise, but consider this scenario:

 

You can't find any flights with a long layover where you have to go through immigration, baggage claim, customs, and TSA security, with a terminal change at some point. There is no way you can make the next flight on any of the available options if you buy one ticket.

 

But what you can find is a three-hour gap between an international flight from your cruise city and a flight on another airline to your home airport.

 

Would you book two tickets to give yourself enough time at the connection airport if cost is not an issue?

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There is no way you can make the next flight on any of the available options if you buy one ticket.

In order to be able to buy a connecting itinerary on one ticket, it has to meet the minimum connection time for that airport. How do you know "there is no way you can make the next flight"?

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Good qestion Hawks. Hear me out before getting mad, please.

 

 

The last time I few into Atlanta, I had to do all of the international steps, change termials, and go throgh security, and get in a restroom break if there was time. (IOur bags had to be checked for two weeks in Italy the second half of November.)

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I know this can't be a money saver and will not try it on my next cruise, but consider this scenario:

...

Would you book two tickets to give yourself enough time at the connection airport if cost is not an issue?

 

I would never do this. If I am heading to a cruise - especially one requiring a long haul international flight - I always go a day or two ahead to ensure I have enough time to deal with connection issues and delayed bags. Going home I don't really care as much as long as I have sufficient time to get to my first flight from the cruise ship.

 

Good qestion Hawks. Hear me out before getting mad, please.

 

 

The last time I few into Atlanta, I had to do all of the international steps, change termials, and go throgh security, and get in a restroom break if there was time. (IOur bags had to be checked for two weeks in Italy the second half of November.)

 

See above for my advice above to minimize this type of issue.

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We did it once....going to to Australia at the start of of a week in country before we started our cruise. We only did it then because I needed $50 more spent on United to keep my Premier status for the next year and LAS to SFO would cost me $54 plus taxes. We were connecting to Air New Zealand so I knew it was a terminal change and I knew I had to reclaim my bags so I took the gamble but also allowed 4 hours to connect and then held by breath for good weather on our travel day. It worked fine, had plenty of time to walk from one terminal to another, re-check bags and even havd a bit to eat. Not something I would do normally because if the segments are not on one ticket the airline is under little or no obligation to help you if the first leg is late and you miss the second.

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Your proposed scenario makes the huge assumption that your two flights cannot be combined into one ticket.

 

That would only occur if the two airlines have no joint ticketing agreement. If they did, even if there was no through fare involved, it could still be ticketed as two "end on end" fares.

 

In addition, since you have 24 hours for international connections, I'm not quite sure why you are focusing in on a simple three hour connect.

 

Now, are you going to submit some real-world examples or scenarios to work with, or is this just some intellectual rumination? Because there are many ways to get from A to B, even with many jogs to C, D, E, F and more. All are possible and can be ticketed, but what is the end goal we are working towards??

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I know this can't be a money saver and will not try it on my next cruise, but consider this scenario:

 

You can't find any flights with a long layover where you have to go through immigration, baggage claim, customs, and TSA security, with a terminal change at some point. There is no way you can make the next flight on any of the available options if you buy one ticket.

 

But what you can find is a three-hour gap between an international flight from your cruise city and a flight on another airline to your home airport.

 

Would you book two tickets to give yourself enough time at the connection airport if cost is not an issue?

 

You don't generally want to do this......

 

When you buy all the flights on a single ticket the airline(s) is/are responsible for making it all work. If you miss your connect the airline(s) cover the cost of rebooking onto another flight.

 

When you buy two separate tickets and your making the connection, your responsible for the connection occurring.

 

As an example, lets say book an Air Canada ticket from London to Toronto and connect onto American Airlines from Toronto to Chicago. If the London to Toronto flight gets cancelled or is 6 hours late, Air Canada will take responsibility for getting you to Chicago. They might book you on another airline doing a direct flight or connecting in New York or somewhere else.

 

If you do the same trip above on two separate tickets and the London to Toronto flight is late or cancelled all Air Canada is responsible for is to get you to Toronto.

 

My example is the type of routing that the airlines websites will never offer. However if you phone the airline call centre or use a travel agent they would be able to combine them onto a single ticket.

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You can't find any flights with a long layover where you have to go through immigration, baggage claim, customs, and TSA security, with a terminal change at some point. There is no way you can make the next flight on any of the available options if you buy one ticket.
The premise is completely false. If the airline will sell you one ticket for that connection, even if it involves all those steps, then almost by definition you can make the next flight. A misconnection on a single ticket costs the airline money, so it won't sell you a single ticket unless it thinks that you have a good chance of making the next flight.

 

So it is simply wrong to suggest that there is "no way you can make the next flight". You may not be guaranteed to get onto it, but there is plenty of "way" that you can make the next flight.

 

What you are guaranteed is that if you miss the next flight, the airline will still get you to your final destination. That is what it has contracted to do, and that it what it will do.

 

Would you book two tickets to give yourself enough time at the connection airport if cost is not an issue?
In contrast, if you book two tickets and you miss the second flight, then technically you are entirely on your own and neither airline is obliged to do anything for you unless it's in the fare rules of each ticket. If you book two cheapie tickets, then there is a good chance that as soon as you miss the second flight, your second ticket is toast.

 

I know this can't be a money saver ...
Finally, this is wrong, too. Many people deliberately book two separate tickets rather than one ticket precisely because it saves them money. One ticket covering both flights is often more expensive because the airline has to build in the cost of (in effect) insuring you against the chance of a misconnection and the consequent costs if it does happen.
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I've done this on several occasions, usually when the longhaul flight doesn't allow an onward connection to a partner within the MCT (minimum connection time) thereby requiring a forced overnight, for example. I've also done it when the cost of two separate tickets is significantly less than having two or more flight segments on the same ticket. In those cases, I allow plenty of time (several hours depending on what time of year, which airport(s), time of day, etc.) between flights, since no-showing for the second ticket will probably result in its cancellation or having to spend a lot of money to make the next available flight.

 

Case in point. A few years ago I was flying from Seattle to Stockholm via Dallas and Heathrow. (American to London, BA from London to Stockholm.) A few weeks before flying, I got word that the London - Stockholm segment I'd been booked had been rescheduled so that my 3-hour layover at LHR was now something like 8 hours. Because of the big change, I was allowed to rebook the whole trip with no change fee.

 

It turned out that the revised SEA-xDFW-LHR flight was cheaper than SEA-xDFW-xLHR-ARN, with the savings actually greater than the cost of an SAS one-way flight from London which got me back to a 3-hour change or so.

 

Since I wasn't traveling with checked bags and knew my way around Heathrow pretty well, I just booked the SAS ticket. Fortunately, the AA flights were on time, the terminal transfer (T3 to T2 at the time) was quick and easy, and I ended up cooling my heels in the lounge at T2 for an hour. All for less money than the original ticket.

 

Now that was a case where two bookings made sense financially. However, it's always risky, so know what the worst case is before you book, and decide if you can live with the consequences of something going pear-shaped.

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Is this truly a hypothetical question, or is there a particular itinerary goal that you are trying to accomplish here? It would help immensely to know if you actually have two specific cities you need to travel between. Until then, all I can say is that it's highly unlikely I would book two separate tickets.

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Your proposed scenario makes the huge assumption that your two flights cannot be combined into one ticket.

 

That would only occur if the two airlines have no joint ticketing agreement. If they did, even if there was no through fare involved, it could still be ticketed as two "end on end" fares.

 

In addition, since you have 24 hours for international connections, I'm not quite sure why you are focusing in on a simple three hour connect.

 

Now, are you going to submit some real-world examples or scenarios to work with, or is this just some intellectual rumination? Because there are many ways to get from A to B, even with many jogs to C, D, E, F and more. All are possible and can be ticketed, but what is the end goal we are working towards??

 

Where doy ou get 24 hours from? I was referring to the duration of a layover, when you have to go through immigration and collect your bags, then go through customs, change terminals, check your bags again, go through security, and get to your gate (after finding outo which one it is). That is what international travelers need 3 hours for unless htey only have carryons.

 

There is no better example than the one I already provided. The people who sat behind us on our CDG-ATL flight also were ticketed to fly to Gainesville. We knew they missed it. They were never even at the gate.

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Where doy ou get 24 hours from? I was referring to the duration of a layover, when you have to go through immigration and collect your bags, then go through customs, change terminals, check your bags again, go through security, and get to your gate (after finding outo which one it is). That is what international travelers need 3 hours for unless htey only have carryons.

 

There is no better example than the one I already provided. The people who sat behind us on our CDG-ATL flight also were ticketed to fly to Gainesville. We knew they missed it. They were never even at the gate.

 

This is an artificial situation. Do you have a specific case your interested in?

 

When on one ticket, most international connections do not involve such complex processes. Usually baggage is automatically transferred, in some cases there is no extra security step. Having two separate tickets forces all this extra work.

 

The US is an exception, the design of most US airports is such that they do not segregate international passenger halls or have the technology in place to handle bag clearance behind the scenes when clearing customs/immigration. The second part is slowly changing.

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How can what actually happened be arificial? We boarded the plane after boarding had officially closed because the captain knew about us, so the plane's entry door was left open until we got on.

 

I am certain your specific instance is real and it sounds like someone missed a connection.

 

The question is if 3 hour is sufficient to make an international connection at an arbitrary airport, between two arbitrary airlines. There are to many variables. For example if you asked about connecting between Adria and Air Canada in Munich I would say you would probably do that in under hour. Between Adria and Air Canada in London Hethrow, your probably tight.

 

I generally like Atlanta as an airport. However I would expect International to Domestic there to be variable and slow if it a busy time of the day.

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The 24 hours refers to the maximum time that you can have to create a connection. And to remind folks that you do NOT have to just accept the connection given to you by the airline computer system, but you can rather construct your own as long as you stay in that time window.

 

Too many people just accept what a GDS tosses at you. Instead, be the master of your own itinerary and construct your own preferred connection.

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Munich must be a relatively small airport if you don't need an hour to make international connections.

 

Is LHR just huge or laid out in an inefficient way?

 

Munich is quite a large airport (not as large as LHR), it is a major hub for Lufthansa. The key difference is the airport is very well designed and efficient.

 

LHR is maxed out in terms of the number of flights, that means a small problem can mess up schedules for hours. Its terminals are physically constrained by the limited amount of space. Transfers between terminals take a long time due to where they are located.

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Munich must be a relatively small airport if you don't need an hour to make international connections.

 

Is LHR just huge or laid out in an inefficient way?

No real comparison between the two. Heathrow handles around 78 million passengers a year, compared to only 44 million at Munich.

 

Sent from my SM-T580 using Forums mobile app

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If it were me on that itinerary, I'd probably look at going in/out of Orlando MCO, and using Lufthansa. Flying in to Budapest, out of Prague, you make one connection in each direction in Frankfurt. Frankfurt is an amazingly efficient airport, and it keeps you from having the collect the bags and recheck them scenario you have when your return flight connects through a US airport. You can buy those tickets for $1000-$1100 pp regularly.

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Where doy ou get 24 hours from? I was referring to the duration of a layover, when you have to go through immigration and collect your bags, then go through customs, change terminals, check your bags again, go through security, and get to your gate (after finding outo which one it is). That is what international travelers need 3 hours for unless htey only have carryons.
It is very possible to do this in less than 3 hours. I once managed that entire process in 25 minutes from arrival (parking brakes on) at the international terminal, including collecting and re-checking my checked bag.

 

So once again, your blanket statement is inaccurate.

 

If you want help with a specific itinerary on specific dates, then you could say so.

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It is very possible to do this in less than 3 hours. I once managed that entire process in 25 minutes from arrival (parking brakes on) at the international terminal, including collecting and re-checking my checked bag.

 

So once again, your blanket statement is inaccurate.

 

If you want help with a specific itinerary on specific dates, then you could say so.

I will agree with this statement on the time it takes to transit. I generally am connecting internationally on the return in Houston IAH or Atlanta ATL, and take 25-40 minutes for this entire process.

I do have Global Entry, which speeds things up. Even if you don't have Global Entry, the Mobile Passport Control app will expedite things quite a bit. My friends who don't have Global Entry were about 15 minutes behind me in the process, and used the Mobile Passport app.

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